The Beast Beneath The Beck

 

The beck at Westgate End is full of reeds,

its water is a muddy shade of brown,

confused ducks die within anaemic weeds

as sunken shopping trolleys pull them down.

Sometimes you hear a cold slithering splash,

as though some ancient creature has slid in

to feast upon the centuries of trash.

Who knows what evils are contained within?

 

It waits for drunken sops no one will miss -

staggering from the Redoubt To The Rock,

it lures with an intoxicating kiss

that leaves them in a state of wide eyed shock.

The Beast Beneath The Beck is quick to greet

and keeps unwary drunkards off the street.

 

The beck at Westgate End is dark and dank

I contemplate it, sitting on this wall

It’s stinking vegetation thick and rank

Floats on the surface prone to cover all.

A body would be lost beneath that sheet

Stored for later consumption in a cleft

A larder, for the beast, of rotting meat

And Gnawing on the bones till nothing’s left

 

I stagger home to sanity and bed

Where dreams will haunt me as I try to sleep

A scaley demon crawling through my head

Dragging me down into the waters deep

The Beast Beneath The Beck is swift to kill

But lingers long into my nightmares still.

 

I know these things are nothing but a tale

Conjured by alcohols bitter excess

A construct of the spirits and the ale

Of which I’ve drunk aplenty I confess.

It whispers softly though it’s words are fake

telling me of the pleasure and the pain

and just one kiss is all that it would take

to fall into its loving arms again

 

But still the nightmares come and haunt my dreams

I seem to know its face and it knows mine

The plaintive clamour of a thousand screams

the crawling of a shiver down my spine

The Beast Beneath The Beck still lies in wait

Each time I drag my feet along Westgate

 

It waits for drunken sops no one will miss -

staggering from the Redoubt To The Rock,

it lures with an intoxicating kiss

that leaves them in a state of wide eyed shock.

The Beast Beneath The Beck is quick to greet

and keeps unwary drunkards off the street.